Due to differences in social, political and economical development between countries, there will always be a flux of persons across a country's borders. Authorities want to force this traffic to go through official points of entry for control. The means for this may be physical hindrances along the borders, such as fences, or various means for observing and apprehending objects that tries to pass outside the ordinary points of entry.
Commonly, various line, point and area (volume) covering sensors are used for observing the border zones. The sensors in question may be radars, camera combinations, camera chains (line sensors), active IR or passive IR (AIR or PIR) sensors/barriers, microwave barriers and mobile sensor units, and others.
Normally, a border can not be covered all along with sensors. In some parts there are placed no sensors, the observation of the border being left to border guard patrols, while sensors are reserved for more threatened parts of the border. However, when placing sensors in an area, it is difficult to predict the effect of a given sensor, or the total protection effect obtained by a set of sensors. This is partly due to the different properties of the various sensors available. To establish the coverage obtained by a set of different sensors is not trivial.
Thus, there is a need for a structured approach for sensor performance analysis in order to synthesize surveillance solutions in border protection systems.